Social media course, June-August, Canberra,

I've been putting some love back into the wiki for the social media course these past few days. Likewise giving this blog a new skin. We're planning to run another free and open social media course here at the University of Canberra, with a view to developing a generic undergrad unit that can be applied in any discipline area.


The structure is based on the traditional university style education, involving lectures and tutorials. 6 lectures are generic looks at social media in society, followed by another 6 applied to a specific area of interest. 

1. Orientation to this unit
2. It's the best of times, it's the worst of times - The pros and cons of social media so far
3. The machine is us/ing us - Privacy, data, economic models and other basis’ for social media services
4. An anthropological introduction to Youtube - Cultures and trends in large social media networks
5. Radical transparency - Open source and participatory economics, mashup, sampling and re appropriation culture
6. The evolution will be socialised - Proposals and activism for alternative social media networks
7. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
8. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
9. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
10. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
11. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*
12. Guest lecture, panel or interview [your applied interest here]*

*Guest lectures, panel discussions, or interviews will be arranged based on the interests of participants in this course, and on topical events occurring during this course. The unit convener will make arrangements for these lectures. If you have suggestions, please contact the unit convener, or discuss it during prior lectures and tutorials.

Then there's the tutorials, with the first 6 focused on skills, and the later 6 on presentations by participants, as well as completing the assignments.

1. Get ready
2. Set up a blog
3. Editing a Mediawiki
4. Set up an RSS reader
5. Bookmarking and tagging
6. Photos and video online
7. Participant presentations
8. Participant presentations
9. Participant presentations
10. Participant presentations
11. Participant presentations
12. Participant presentations

The assignments include:

1. A tutorial weblog
2. A presentation
3. A Wikibook chapter

And so, this should be seen as a generic course (at level 1 or first year) that can be adapted into any specific setting. On the same note, the course should be seen as flexible by potential participants, in that they can bring their own ideas for assignment work, or apply the assignments the way they need to apply them. Likewise with guest lectures. 

I guess this course tries to straddle the institutional education system, and the open interests out there on the street, so to speak. Its a difficult balancing act because participants tend to bring entirely separate expectations, depending where their coming from.

But we're running this course 14 June - 12 August, 2011, at the University of Canberra, contact me if you'd like to be involved, or coordinate your own teaching and learning efforts with this one.

Hic ups.. how to start?

I left with a bad feeling from the last workshop.. mainly because I always struggle with where to start!? It usually becomes easier when I get a sense of what people want to do, but at the same time - how are people meant to know what they want to do when they don't know what is possible?

Usually I start a workshop with an overview of social media. But I stutted, ummed and arghed, and probably left new comers feeling a bit bewilded and wondering about what they're doing here.

It seemed people were anxious to get in and "do some learning", but we're back to the first problem.. try what and why? Perhaps a workshop on "social media" is too broad.. and I need to simply focus.. Tonight's workshop is on Twitter for example - make of it what you will? But as Beverly said, social media is not a linear thing, and engaging with it like this risks a very disjointed understanding of it. My approach has been to try and look at it as much as possible first, and see if a light turns on. But this has just as many problems, not the least over whelming people with new information.

For some people, the non linear approach of looking at things and seeing where questions and comments lead us seems to work to a point. It really depends on how willing people are to engage. We focused a lot on the makings of Wikipedia.. and that lead to a deeper understanding on how we can assess its accuracy and authenticity. But over all, many people are so new to it all, that it is hard to question or comment or engage generally - its just a task in concentration alone!

Eventually I bit the bullet and realised non linear is just as difficult as linear. So we knuckled down to setting up an RSS news reader, using Google Reader. Those new to the course all successfully set up an account and subscribed to at least 2 feeds. Here's a video by GoogleReaderHelp to get you thinking about how to use your reader effectively:



If video is a good way for you to understand things, check out GoogleReaderHelp's other videos.

One new person (sorry, names!) discovered a wonderfully quick way to search for feeds! Simply click the "subscribe button" and type in a subject search, such as "gardening with native new zealand plants". Google reader will search for social media (that being media created largely by people like you and I) and return information that includes: The title of the media item it has found, a snippet of the content, the website address that the item comes from, and how many people are subscribed to the feed. From this we have just enough information to decide whether to subscribe to the feed or not. I think this is a very quick way to find feeds that may (or may not) lead us to new and interesting information in the future. Think of feeds as pathways to future information, rather than static and already available information. You're looking for feeds that appear like they will provide you with information around your interest generally.

The Google Reader is hard for people to comprehend I find. A lot of people struggle to use it well, such as finding good feeds, and regularly checking it for updates. But it is fundamental for entering the social media scape. If you can work this tool out, it will help you access interesting media, and help you manage all that you find in an efficient time saving way. With all this stimulation will likely come inspiration and new ideas, which will hopefully lead you to want to create your own media, and that will see you becoming connected to people who eventually subscribe to your feeds. In time and careful management, you will draw yourself into deeper understandings, direct contact with experts, and you will start to feel the "social" side of the Internet.

Next week, I think we'll go linear again and look at Twitter. I think Twitter is useful in helping us understand how blogging and reading fit together.